A boy like that will kill your brother

That’s because he’s got a gun and he’s not afraid to use it.

• Don’t look now, but here come the Cardinals. The Brewers have apparently decided that they aren’t ready to dispense with their 25 years of ineptitude and the team that beat them way back in ’82 is now coming on. What a terrible week in Milwaukee so far. It’s been so much fun watching this young team play, but they’d better get their act together soon. A healthy Ben Sheets would help, too.
• So my beloved alma mater, Beloit College, now ranks 67th in the U.S. News survey of national liberal arts colleges, tied with Kalamazoo College in both academic prestige and odd-sounding names. There’s plenty of reason to be skeptical about the U.S. News rankings, which are positively Byzantine in how they are derived, but it’s not especially encouraging to see your school graded as some sort of poor man’s Bard or (worse) Lawrence. I think we beat out Normandale Community College, so that’s something, I guess. One thing I did learn from the rankings – I had no idea that Grinnell (ranked 11th) is sitting on a $1.4 billion endowment. They’ve got more money than King Canute.
• They’re still fighting over the bridge here, not surprisingly. The design that has been put forth is sadly lacking in sacred light rail amenities, which seems to irritate people who had never thought of adding light rail to 35W before the bridge collapse. The train seems to hypnotize people here, who continue to talk about a great success it is and how it could change everything, even as we continue to provide multi-million dollar subsidies to keep it running. It doesn’t look like the choo-choo fans are going to screw up the timetable for rebuilding because of their kvetching, but it won’t be for a lack of effort. Maybe R.T. Rybak and his fellow light rail fans can get Grinnell College can help pay for the light rail – won’t hurt to ask, right?

Blogging with the Benmeister

So my son Ben is here with me this afternoon and he's going to help me out with this particular post. Since he hates my beloved Brewers, I'm going to censor him from commenting on that particular subject, but he may have something else to say - let's find out, shall we?

What's the matter with you? You let me guest blog, and now you're going to censor me? Well, I'm going to rip you in an attack ad right now, so bring it on, Dilettante! Actually, I'm not as hostile as I sound on the blog. After all of these violent words, I'm going to leave it to my associate here, who is going to tell you how glorious I really am. And don't forget to read my blog, www.bens-sportsblog.blogspot.com, for all the latest rips.

Ben is actually a sweet kid, although he comes on like Jim Rome without the cheesy mustache sometimes. No one in our family has a cheesy mustache - we leave that sort of thing to certain California-based associates of ours.

Actually, Ben has a beef that we're currently investigating. Ben is the proud owner of a Game Boy Advance gadget and he has long been known as an inveterate gamester. He has eagerly purchased the three previous versions of EA Sports' Madden video game juggernaut. Unfortunately, it appears that Madden o8 is not going to be available in the Game Boy format. This is part of the usual planned obsolescence scam that is so prevalent in this industry - essentially, by no longer making new titles in the GBA format, kids (or more to the point parents) are forced to buy newer, more expensive systems (like the Nintendo DS, which is roughly double the price of the GBA and has the added feature of a flimsy stylus that is easy for children to lose and has about a $10 replacement cost). Ben is, not surprisingly, pretty p.o.'ed about this and he may consider launching some form of protest. I hope he succeeds - he shares the family loudmouth traits and he can be articulate, even when he's ripping my beloved Brewers. He'll have plenty to say about this in the coming days. And I just might, too.

Try our hubris, I swear! No really, I'm swearing! #@(!

Once in a while I pop in and visit a nest of liberals at the Star Tribune. They have a number of blog sites, including The Big Question, which is their ostensibly political blog. It was originally started by their long-term political reporter, Eric Black, who was one of the bigfoots who left the Strib during the recent wave of buyouts. The site is now run by D.J. Tice, who directs political coverage for the Strib and used to be the house conservative columnist at the Pioneer Press.

The format there is typical of many political blogs - the host posts an article or question about something political, then turns it over to various posters. I would estimate that probably 75% of the posters there are lefties of varying degrees, including at least one fairly active political operative named Bill Prendergast, who is a regular contributor to the "Dump Bachmann" website dedicated to the political destruction of our favorite Minnesota holy roller congresswoman (you can find the link yourself if you're so inclined).

As I said, I like to stop by from time to time and throw a few turds in their punchbowl. While Tice and his predecessor Black always have sought some measure of civility, the lefties are like most lefties; i.e., arrogant and condescending. On that site I have been compared to a trained monkey and to Benito Mussolini because of my views, which not surprisingly I find quite persuasive. I have to bow before such erudition.

I've suggested to a few posters there that, if they really interested in having their side run the country, they might be better served to limit their invective and actually try to make cogent arguments and take a less, shall we say ad hominem approach. Interestingly, they have no use for my advice. The tone is usually something like "if you want me to be civil toward the people who have destroyed this nation and brought us Chimpy McBushsatanhitler Buscho corruption and sank our international reputation to an all time low and [insert your favority lefty talking points here], I refuse! #@* *(#&@(#, I won't be silent about it!"

Oh, and #@*#( Halliburton, too. And #@*(# Dale Carnegie, for that matter. @*#(@(#.

Sometimes I wonder, do these people really understand what they sound like? Do they understand that the dripping condescension and arrogance they display is singularly unattractive? Or are they so committed to their hatred, their rage against the injustices they perceive, that they can't get how crappy they appear?

Guess not. And that's why I think the Democrats may not want to be too sure of their inevitability in the next election cycle. One of the many reasons why Karl Rove was successful is that he often simply let the Democrats monologue, as they say in "The Incredibles." No matter what you think of W's performance, and the performance of the Republican party in recent years, they don't go around actively insulting vast portions of the populace. That might at least partially explain some of their electoral success over the past 30 years.

Weaponless in Seattle

Q. What do you have when you have to bring in half your AAA team as position players?

1) The Minnesota Twins
2) The Rochester Redwings masquerading as the Minnesota Twins
3) No chance
4) All of the above

The answer is obviously 4). And that is why the Twins are getting their butts beaten up and down the West Coast. You cannot win if you cannot score. And typically, AAA lineups do not beat big league teams, especially the very good ones in the AL West.

There’s been a lot of speculation about the job Terry Ryan has done this year, but I think it’s been pretty evident from the start that this year’s team was going to be short. There was a lot of magic in the air about the Twins last year, which led to some unrealistic expectations. There was a reason why Nick Punto had never held a regular job in the major leagues before last season, to use just one example. The Twins are scrappy and have some legitimate star power, but their everyday lineup simply does not compare to that of the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, Indians, Angels or Mariners. Not surprisingly, those are the teams that are leaving dust in the faces of the Twins. Remember, Twins fans – there’s always plenty of room on the Brewers bandwagon!

Rove if you want to

So Karl Rove is leaving the White House. What does it mean?

My guess - not as much as you'd think. I've long suspected that Rove's main role in the White House has been more as a sounding board than as a brilliant strategist/surrogate brain. One of the more amusing memes of the Bush presidency has been the dichotomy between Bush the dumb-ass and Bush the Evil Genius. Over the course of W's presidency, he's been called both, often by the same people. It's not really possible to be a dumb-ass Evil Genius, so there's more than a little bit of cognitive dissonance in this critique. Thus, Karl Rove, Bush's closest advisor, must be some sort of Rasputin who manipulates Chimpy McBushitler (or whatever the current apellation is) to come up with the evil yet bumbling machinations that have characterized the last 6-7 years. Bush couldn't have come up with anything on his own, because he's too stupid, the reasoning goes. Never mind that a lot of these critics of Bush's acumen tend to have their terminal degree from places like Inver Hills Community College, not Yale and Harvard. Perhaps the evil genius side of Bush was able to trick these august institutions into awarding him degrees. But I digress.

Anyway, it's never made a lot of sense to assume that Rove is doing Bush's thinking. He is a key adviser, without question. He is also a very good, not great, political strategist. But I suspect we'll learn that his influence in the Bush White House, while substantial, was not necessarily decisive. And I suspect that we'll learn, 20-25 years on, that Bush is a lot smarter and more sophisticated than his critics have portrayed him. Reagan has recently gone through this sort of revisionism. When the historians get to the subject, it's going to look a lot different than it does now.

Five minutes

That's all I have today. How much blogging can I get in? Let's find out. Go!

• Packers 13, Pittsburgh 9. Defense is good. Brandon Jackson appears serviceable. Aaron Rodgers leads three scoring drives. A good start.
• Rams 13, Vikings 10. No offense. Tarvaris Jackson appears to be as good as the 70s dance band Tavares. Heaven must be missing an angel....
• Revised global warming data from NASA indicates that 1934, not 1998, is warmest year on record. Yep, let's fundamentally alter our way of life because of computer models that end up getting revised.
• Romney wins Iowa straw poll. Of course he did. Still not sure we'll ever have a president named Mitt.
• Booker T and the MGs play Dakota with local drummer pinch-hitting. Doesn't matter; any drummer worth a darn would know their material. Wish I'd been there.

I love a parade

We’re now in the middle of my community’s annual summer celebration. I live in the blissfully non-descript community of New Brighton, Minnesota, and each August we celebrate New Brighton’s quasi-agricultural past with the “Stockyard Days” celebration. At one point, about 100 years ago, New Brighton was a railroad stop and was the site of some stockyards, which eventually lost out to the massive operations in St. Paul and South St. Paul. The centerpiece of the celebration is the Stockyard Days parade, which runs down Old Highway 8, one of the ugliest streets in the Twin Cities. Using Old 8 for the parade route is a lot like holding a home tour in the mud room, but that’s what we do. I guess if it gets dirty, no one cares.

Stockyard Days is a good peg for such an event, because it gives a discernible theme for the parade and it thoroughly confuses all the neighboring suburban beauty queens on display. The lovelies from Hopkins and Anoka and Lino Lakes and Vadnais Heights and other such places show up with tiaras, permanents and ball gowns and then end up smashing a Stetson on their heads. Suddenly they all look vaguely like Debra Winger circa 1980 and you want to look for the Lone Star and the mechanical bulls. But that’s not what this parade is about, ultimately.

Candy is what the parade is really about. Just ask my son, who brought a plastic shopping bag to the parade and collected about 4 pounds of candy that had been tossed from the various parade units. I am not exaggerating this – he typically hauls in a lot less candy at Halloween than he does at this parade. My favorite part was when a local dental clinic was just about carpet bombing the crowd with hard candy; this is an excellent way to drum up business.

My daughter Maria had a chance to march this year with her Brownie troop. She was very happy to do so and she managed to fling candy at her brother, just like everyone else did.

Since this is an off year for elections, there weren’t nearly as many politicians on display. It also seemed like the air was cleaner, but I have to assume that was coincidental.

Stampeding over a collapsed bridge

Even as the work continues and the sixth body is removed from the river, the politics of the 35W bridge collapse are starting to heat up. Frankly, it's beginning to feel like a stampede.

Yesterday our old pal James Oberstar, the wizened Iron Ranger who has managed through seniority and attrition to become one of the most powerful Congressmen in Washington, announced that he was going to seek a 5 cent per gallon increase in the gasoline tax to fund infrastructure. This would be on top of whatever increase the state might add in a special legislative session. The ever-earnest Oberstar swears that the federal increase would be "only" for 3 years. But that's not how it works in Washington - as I recall, the AMT was a temporary measure as well, but it's still on the books and has been steadily capturing more and more unsuspecting taxpayers since its introduction in the late 1960s.

You can make an argument that the nation's infrastructure has been neglected. The 35W bridge actually looked better to my untrained eye than many other bridges I've traveled over the years; if you want to see a really scary bridge, take the U.S. 52 bridge over the Mississippi at Savanna, IL some time. I have seen estimates that it would take something like $1.3 trillion to bring the current infrastructure "up to code." If we think doing this is a priority, we're talking Marshall Plan type numbers.

But here is the question - is it necessary? While the 35W bridge collapse was a horrific event, does it follow that we're going to see a whole bunch of other bridges collapse in the near future? Or, more likely, will this one event cause local governments throughout the nation to step up their efforts to monitor and repair the infrastructure they have jurisdiction over? And will these repairs require an increase in the gasoline tax? Or could the money come from judicious cuts of other programs, like (to use local examples) the subsidies for the Guthrie Theater and the new Twins ballpark?

I know, it's impolitic to ask these sorts of questions, especially in the wake of a tragedy. It's "playing politics" and it's crass. Only Democrats are allowed to do these things. By the way, have we put Carol Molnau on the pyre yet? C'mon, c'mon, it's getting late.

Mischievious mysteries (featuring guest blogger Maria)

I'm here this afternoon with Maria, my lovely seven year old daughter. Maria would like to discuss mischievious mysteries. So, let's see what happens:

First, let's ask - how's Lenny doing? Lenny is my nickname for my brother, Ben. Second, who are the teachers for me and Ben/Lenny this year? Well, oh well, we'll find out. That's the mysteries part.

Now on the mischievious part. I'll bet Ben is up to something today. Like, when we were playing with Ben's GameBoy, he kept talking to the Pokemon and saying stuff like, "Yes, power! Yes! We're going for the death!" I kept telling him, the game isn't just about getting power. You can actually have some love with the Pokemon. Oh well, we'll find out what he's up to. Now, back to Dad. Ahhhhh, barra barracuda!

I would note that the classic rock reference contained therein is completely Maria's. She has a lot of musical influences and wants to be a rock star some day. There is the matter of getting the electric guitar and amp, and putting up with a little bit of screeching before she learns how to do the wailing solos, but I wouldn't bet against her. At a minimum, I'd guess she'll be better than most of the mopes who appear on American Idol.

Kids have a lot of dreams. So do I. And we're working on them every day. Always good to have my guest blogger Maria around - you can also find her at www.aboutmaria.blogspot.com, and you can also find my son at www.bens-sportsblog.blogspot.com, where we rages eloquently against Barry Bonds. We do present all sides here at Mr. Dilettante.

Bonds gets the record

So it happened last night. The lovely wife and I saw the shot live on ESPN. Now he’s got the record. Mrs. D was not happy and my son was incensed this morning when I told him about it. I say: Go get ‘em, A-Rod….

p.s. Henry Aaron’s pre-recorded message was quite effective and classy. Totally in character and great to see, just like Hank Aaron’s career.

Comparative Literature

Most colleges have a comparative literature program, which typically allows young people to spend lots of their parents’ hard-earned money and plenty of Pell Grant taxpayer largesse to read obscure authors in tandem with the deep thoughts of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and similar literary parlor-trick artists. You can learn something in such programs – like how to bore the crap out of someone at a cocktail party. But it’s usually not a productive venture, no matter how much you spend on tuition, and it’s often a ticket to a post-grad barista gig.

Despite those caveats, I was thinking about the value of comparing ideas from different realms because of two books I’m currently reading. The first is a book I’ve been meaning to get to for some time now, Lawrence Wright’s “The Looming Tower,” which provides a valuable and readable history of the origins of Al-Qaeda by detailing the careers of Osama bin Laden, Zayman al-Zawahiri and the various blackguards and henchmen that are part of the Al-Qaeda orbit. At the same time, I have been re-reading one of my favorite novels, William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies.” I have put “Lord of the Flies” on my 11-year old son’s summer reading list and I wanted to refresh myself with it before he starts into the book. I have long believed that “Lord of the Flies” is one of the best parables of modern life that you could find and in re-reading it, I remain convinced of it. I think every boy should read this book, because the story explains, in ways better than I am capable, the principal problem of civilization. That is, how do you control the impulses of young men?

As I look at “The Looming Tower,” I am struck by how much the problem in the Middle East, and in Islam generally, is really not that exotic at all, despite the barbarism that has marked the Islamist movement. The problem in so many of the places is pretty simple – you have a lot of young men who have directionless lives, filled with boredom and arbitrary rules. Poverty is not the problem; as has been consistently demonstrated, some of the worst of the Al-Qaeda operatives have been scions of the middle and upper classes in their respective countries. What has happened is that the Salafist strain of Islam, combined with the notion of takfir, have been combined in a way that essentially allows these folks to take whatever action they need to accomplish their goal, even if that means killing thousands of innocent people, often in the most barbaric ways. Al-Qaeda gives these directionless youths something to believe in, and something that is especially powerful since it gives them dominion over others. It becomes pretty easy to see the similarities between Jack Merridew and bin Laden, to say nothing of the similarities between Piggy and, say, the modern Democratic Party.

I commend both books to your attention. If you’d like another book that would also make a good companion to this topic, try Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer.”

I'm in the MOB now

Groucho Marx famously remarked that he would never want to be part of any club that would have him as a member. But I don't hang on Groucho's every word, so it was high time that I finally moved this enterprise into an orbit with other bloggers. As a result, I have now joined the MOB, i.e., the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers. This group of bloggers includes a number of particular favorites of mine and I highly recommend that you stop by. I will be constructing a blog roll that contains the name of all these blogs and will add it to this site in the coming days. Make sure you visit some of the other blogs in the MOB; as Bill Cosby used to say on "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids" you just might learn something before it's done. Hey hey hey!

35W

We're now five days on after the collapse of the 35W bridge over the Mississippi River. There's a lot of work to be done in surveying the site, removing the debris and most of all recovering the victims who remain trapped underneath tons of concrete and the murky waters. There's no doubt that this has been a traumatic time around here, but I sense that we won't be wallowing in the event too much longer. There's simply too much work to be done and Minnesotans aren't generally in the habit of indulging self-pity.

We went downtown on Saturday to see the Twins game, but our trip was fairly circuitous, so we didn't get very close the bridge itself. Since it was a weekend, it wasn't especially difficult to get around the downtown area. We decided to avoid the 3rd Avenue bridge, which is the closest to 35W, instead choosing to go about 1/2 mile further to the west to use the Hennepin Avenue bridge. That worked very well and it is very easy for us to take East Hennepin over to Stinson Boulevard, then snake our way through the industrial areas of Nordeast back to Highway 88 and home. This is a workable trip under normal circumstances; when I used to work downtown and had to drive, I would often take this path to get home, especially if the traffic reports for 35W were not promising, and they often weren't. One of the advantages of living where we do is that it is pretty easy to get most places in the Twin Cities; although New Brighton is technically a St. Paul suburb, we live only 2 miles from the edge of Nordeast. Although we'll have to see how things develop, the immediate impact of the bridge collapse has not been that onerous for us personally; it's quite possible that many of us who relied on the bridge will be able to figure out ways to minimize the impact.

We've only seen glimpses thus far, but it's inevitable that the long knives will be coming out about this matter. Personally I don't think it makes any sense to blame anyone for what was clearly a multi-factorial disaster, but there have already been some calls for the head of Carol Molnau, who runs MnDOT. Not surprisingly, the calls have come from the hyperpartisans among us, like the ever-frothing StarTribune columnist Nick Coleman. But I don't think Molnau will ultimately take a bullet on this; while there are reasons to wonder about the bridge inspection program, most of the people who have been complaining loudest about it are people like me, i.e., people with no particular expertise on bridges and/or structural engineering. My guess is that once the investigations run their course, it will turn out that no one factor was decisive in what happened. Sometimes people do the right thing and the result is still terrible.

One thing that unfortunately hasn't surprised me is that many of the victims are neighbors of ours, including two people from neighboring Mounds View and another from my former town of Shoreview. 35W is best known as the main path to the southern suburbs, but those who cross the bridge are, in the main, headed for the staid enclaves of northwestern Ramsey County. There are a lot of us who live up this way and generally the communities we live in are not especially newsworthy; my town is most noteworthy for its complete lack of noteworthiness. Most of us live quiet lives, filled with church picnics, Little League games and neighborhood parades where the dignitaries throw fistfuls of candy to the kids along the route. Those routines won't change much, I think - the kids got enough candy from the St. Anthony parade on Friday that their haul rivaled what they get at Halloween. Life goes on.

The media bigfoots are leaving town now; W was here, but he's gone on to other matters as well. While it may not be normal for a long time, we'll adjust. We're Minnesotans. That's what we do.

A new venture

I'm starting a new side venture blog - Comedy Acres. You will find this blog at www.comedyacres.blogspot.com. Comedy Acres will be a gathering place for my old collegiate chums. We'll be posting lots of things there, although I have no idea what it will ultimately develop into. Mr. Dilettante remains as it is.

More soon, including thoughts on the ongoing story that is dominating things here, the collapse of the I-35W bridge.

A terrible beauty is born

The images, now ubiquitous, are horrifying. The twisted green metal superstructure, tangled and jutting out at bizarre angles, providing a reminder of the incredible force unleashed. The slab of concrete blocks the river flow, with equally large slabs jutting out from the shoreline below, pointing toward the hazy, August sky. The cars, buses and trucks are scattered throughout the site, with unknown numbers of late model vehicles submerged under tons of steel and concrete.

It’s a horrifying thing, the collapse of a major bridge. The rumble of death will reverberate here for a long time. This is the stuff of disaster movies, a Jerry Bruckheimer image writ large and real. We’ll live with the consequences of August 1, 2007 for many years.

Still, there is beauty if you look for it. The performance of the first responders was magnificent; the death toll could have easily reached 100, maybe 200 people, but most likely will be far less. The police and fire departments of Minneapolis, so often the well-deserved targets of invective and ridicule for their petty corruption and silly political correctness, performed with grace, professionalism and amazing calm, given the extent of the calamity they found. The paramedics and doctors arriving on the scene were ready, moved quickly, and saved dozens of people. The Red Cross, whose Minneapolis headquarters sits nearby the scene, provided valuable services and comforted the victims and their families. Even the politicians, so often a hindrance rather than a help, performed with grace and restraint, with at least one notable exception, about which more in a moment.

We were far away from the event as it happened, fetching the weekly groceries. We had no idea what had happened and had turned on WCCO radio, more because we noted a line of storms on the western horizon and were looking for a weather update. As we drove home from the store on 35W, about 10 miles north of the site, it became clear that something horrific had happened. The answering machine was already filling with concerned calls from my relatives in Wisconsin. I have crossed the 35W bridge thousands of times in the 15 years I’ve lived in Minnesota and my relatives knew that. It is quite possible that when the list of victims becomes known, I will know someone who was on that bridge at the fateful moment; many of my friends and neighbors use this bridge each day. I hope not, but all of us who live and work in the northern suburbs must prepare for the possibility. All the victims, whether we know them or not, will need our prayers and support.

I am certain that the recriminations will start coming, even before the scene is cleared and the victims identified. It already started last night, as I watched the execrable Elwyn Tinklenberg on KARE television essentially state that the bridge collapsed because the state had not raised the gasoline tax up to a level of his liking. There will be others who will blame Carol Molnau, or Tim Pawlenty. We could just as easily blame Karl Rolvaag or Harold LeVander, the respective governors who presided over the construction of the bridge back in the late 1960s. Neither of them is available for comment at this time.

I hope the recriminations don’t come, though. They are not helpful. What matters now is identifying the victims and comforting their families. What matters next is rebuilding the bridge. We have work to do.

Return to the Month of Ghosts

We're back to August, the month of ghosts. As regular readers of this feature will recall, this is the month in which both of my parents died; my father in 1990, my mother in 2000. While there's a lot to like about August, especially in the Upper Midwest - the warm days, the beautiful sunsets, the State Fair - it's personally difficult for me to not think about the losses my family has had during this time of year.

Still, I'm trying to face the future. Sadness is normal enough, I suppose - I think about my parents every day. I long for their counsel, their support, their love. You don't realize how much you miss those things until it's too late. But the lessons I learned from my parents work in new contexts as well. When I consider how Jill and I are raising our own children, I can clearly see how my own childhood has profoundly affected the decisions I've made in my life, especially where the kids are concerned.

Okay, I promise not to go all introspective this month. There's plenty of stuff to write about in politics, sports, music, etc. But know that the ghosts are out again. And they may alight here in the next month on more than one occasion.

Adieu KG and other stuff

Lots of rumors floating around right now about Kevin Garnett. Where rumors fly, so do bullets.

• The StarTribune is reporting that trade talks with the Celtics are heating up. Apparently the Wolves would send Garnett to Boston in exchange for up to 6 players, the most prominent of which is power forward Al Jefferson. Other reports indicate that Jefferson is not part of the trade, but that half the city of Boston is. It's confusing, but other names mentioned include Sebastian Telfair, who I think played Mr. French on Family Affair if I remember correctly and whom I'd assumed was dead for about 30 years. I know, that was Sebastian Cabot. Telfair is Stephon Marbury's cousin, I believe. If this pans out, we'll have a lot of names to learn; that much is certain.
• The Brewers continue to slide and the Cubs continue to surge in the Comedy Central pennant race. I'm not quite sure what the issue is in Milwaukee, but one alarming development is the recent series of implosions of closer Francisco Cordero. Cordero had been lights out all season, but has blown two saves in the last week. There are some good relievers available, like Octavio Dotel and Eric Gagne; perhaps the Crew could get one of those guys before the deadline. Pitching is the issue in Milwaukee.
• Meanwhile, the Twins may still be in the fight following two clutch wins in Cleveland over the weekend. The Twins seem to have a hitting issue; namely, a complete lack of it beyond Morneau, Mauer and Hunter. It was nice to see that Jason Tyner got his first major league home run over the weekend, but really now, how good a team are you if you have to rely on someone like Jason Tyner? They need bats. Maybe the Brewers and the Twins should make a trade - how about Matt Guerrier or (better yet) Pat Neshek to the Crew for, say, Tony Gwynn Jr.? Or Juan Rincon for Kevin Mench? That would be a good trade for both sides.
• I had an extended conversation with an anonymous poster last week about Barry Bonds. I remain quite ambivalent about Bonds, which is fairly heretical these days. I do wonder how all of this is going to look 20 years on; I tend to see Bonds as a Faustian figure, a fellow who may have sold his soul for glory that he may ultimately be denied. What I'll never really understand is that he wasn't satisfied with simply being the best player of his generation; he may have chosen the needle (or the "cream" or the "clear") because being the best simply wasn't good enough. The Baseball Hall of Fame has some strange standards; I highly recommend Bill James's book on the Hall, The Politics of Glory, to those who are interested in the topic. As James rightly points out, the standards of the Hall of Fame are already so hopelessly compromised that some of the oppobrium put on Bonds, Mark McGwire and others seems pretty strange.
• It's looking bad for Michael Vick, as one of his co-defendants looks like he's going to cop a plea and testify against the Falcons quarterback. If Vick did what he's accused of, he's a lousy human being and probably deserves a little time in prison. But I have heard and seen pundits who are arguing that this scandal is worse than the Ray Lewis scandal. Lewis, you'll recall, was charged with murder. Somehow, I still think murder is a more serious offense than cruelty to animals.

Tomahawk

I will be making my second trip up to the Tomahawk Scout Camp this afternoon, this time to pick up Ben. He’s been up there for a week now and I made a quick visit on Wednesday to see him. It’s a long way up there – about 110 miles through some hilly country. This portion of Wisconsin was one of the few places in the state that I’d never been and it was interesting to see.

Ben and his pals have had a marvelous time up there – my own scouting career ended after I earned my Cub Scout Bear badge, so he’s gone a lot further than I have with it. And he’s been doing some things this week that I haven’t ever done, like firing a shotgun. I was a city kid and my dad didn’t hunt, so many of these activities are alien to me. Ben may not ever be interested in hunting, or even target shooting, but it’s a good thing for him to understand how guns work. He’s less likely to believe nonsense as an adult if he gains an understanding of a subject as a child.

That, in a nutshell, is what Scouting is really about. While the activities are a lot of fun, the moral message of Scouting is hard to gainsay. Consider the Scout Law:

TRUSTWORTHY
A Scout tells the truth. He keeps his promises. Honesty is part of his code of conduct. People can depend on him.
LOYAL
A Scout is true to his family, Scout leaders, friends, school, and nation.
HELPFUL
A Scout is concerned about other people. He does things willingly for others without pay or reward.
FRIENDLY
A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He seeks to understand others. He respects those with ideas and customs other than his own.
COURTEOUS
A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. He knows good manners make it easier for people to get along together.
KIND
A Scout understands there is strength in being gentle. He treats others as he wants to be treated. He does not hurt or kill harmless things without reason.
OBEDIENT
A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobey them.
CHEERFUL
A Scout looks for the bright side of things. He cheerfully does tasks that come his way. He tries to make others happy.
THRIFTY
A Scout works to pay his way and to help others. He saves for unforeseen needs. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property.
BRAVE
A Scout can face danger even if he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at or threaten him.
CLEAN
A Scout keeps his body and mind fit and clean. He goes around with those who believe in living by these same ideals. He helps keep his home and community clean.
REVERENT
A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.

How many people do you know, people that you deal with in the course of living your life, consistently model these behaviors? Not many, I’m guessing. While there are bad Boy Scouts, I’ve not met many. Scouts understand that a functioning society needs people who are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Although based on what I saw at camp, clean may be a bit of a challenge.

Confessions of a steroid user

Even though Michael Vick and the corrupt NBA referee are starting to put matters in perspective, there remains a lot of controversy over Barry Bonds and his slog toward the home run record. As of this writing, he now is sitting at 753 career homers and has a chance to tie or break Henry Aaron’s record on the Giants’ current homestand. I’ve written about Barry before; I’m pretty much ambivalent about it all; there looks to be a lot of circumstantial evidence that he was seeking an edge and that he may have taken performance-enhancing drugs. But given the presence of Gaylord Perry in the Hall of Fame, it’s difficult to see why Bonds should be vilified.

Lately I’ve been thinking about Bonds in a different context. Since I had my surgery in April, I’ve been living without a pituitary gland. As a result, I am now taking a variety of pills to help keep me on the beam. Among the things I take every day is hydrocortisone. Hydrocortisone is (cue ominous music) a steroid! I’m not sure if taking steroids has enhanced my performance in any way, but I still end up taking the pills anyway. And if I stopped taking steroids, ultimately I would get so sick that I’d die. So when I hear people railing against steroids, I wonder a bit. They have their purpose in life. So does self-righteousness, I guess.

I'm only sleeping

Had a little trouble getting to sleep last night, but I'm hardly the only one.

• The most famous bit of insomnia came overnight on Tuesday, as Harry "Sominex" Reid and his merry band of surrender monkeys decided that they would try sleep deprivation as a policy driver. Didn't work, of course - the days of the all-night filibuster have been gone since Frank Capra and it doesn't count if your Red Bull-addled staffers are the ones staying up; they would do that anyway. Boredom can lead to sleepiness and it's quite possible that as Reid and his compadres continue these sorts of stunts, he might lull enough people into slumber and get his plans across. But as the old saying goes, the price of liberty is eternal vigilance and Mitch McConnell is awake.


• They could use some Red Bull over at the Metrodome. The Tigers have come to town and have now held the Twins to a total of 2 runs over the first two games. Matt Garza was spectacular, but the Twins hitters didn't deign to show up and give him any support in Tuesday's 1-0 loss. Last night the Twins managed to strand several dozen runners on base and lost an eminently winnable game, 3-2. Now our beloved TC Men are 8 games back. They might be running out of time. Dmitri Young, please pick up the white courtesy phone.


• In late breaking news, Valerie Plame's lawsuit against the Bush administration was put to sleep by a federal judge today. That's probably a break for her - personally, I would have loved to see her self-aggrandizing husband Joe Wilson have to testify under oath about his role in all this. People are still laboring under the misimpression that these people were wronged somehow. The attendant publicity such a trial would have engendered would have changed all that, and quickly.


• Is it just me, or is it really quiet in Green Bay right now? I'm not seeing or hearing any Packers news and as the sunsets come quicker and more signs of football are visible, I'm wondering what's going on here. This has been one of quietest off-seasons I've ever seen, Michael Vick notwithstanding. I almost wish Brett Favre would do one of his Hamlet soliloquies just to liven things up.

Relentless Cubs and other non-sequiturs

All in handy bullet format!

• Someone break up the Cubs, who have now won 16 of their last 20 games and have pulled ever closer to my beloved Brewers in the NL "Comedy" Central race. No one else is close right now and it looks like a two team race. It's been interesting to watch this develop - the Brewers jumped out to a huge early lead and have continued to play well, but something is happening on the North Side. Lou Piniella has won elsewhere and maybe he's the difference. We'll see.
• As the Democrats continue to push for ignominious surrender in Iraq, Thomas Sowell, the longtime economist and syndicated columnist, asks the relevant question - what then? This is a question that the Left has consistently refused to answer, preferring to bang their fists on the table and to excoriate George W. Bush. But this the right question. See more at www.realclearpolitics.com
• Tim Brewster has to be wondering what to do now - just as he was attempting to build a groundwork for the new season, word comes that star cornerback Dominic Jones has been charged with criminal sexual assault in the April incident that already has a cloud hanging over three other Gophers. This is bad stuff and if Jones indeed did was has been alleged, he deserves an extended tour of the Minnesota penal system. There's a larger message here about how we tolerate bad behavior among athletes, but that's another post.
• Do you remember when Pele came to the U.S.? I do - I was about 12 at the time and the hype was pretty difficult to avoid. But the hype didn't change things - as great a player as Pele was, his arrival in America rivaled the Bay City Rollers, Comet Kohoutek and the swine flu among overhyped 70s events. Now, 30 years on, the latest soccer phenom arrives in America to show us what we're missing in our studied avoidance of the world's game. David Beckham even got a name-check in a semi-popular film from a few years back, Bend it Like Beckham. He's married to one of those Spice Girls. And he has tattoos! The full package, I guess. Will any of this matter? Check back after the football season is underway; if people are still talking about Beckham and not about Peyton Manning, then we'll know something is up. But don't count on it.
• Have been a little light on posting lately. I'll try to be a bit more diligent about it in the coming days. Blogging is a discipline just like any other. The blank screen, like the blank page, is something that can be overcome.

Rockies fall to Red Sox

Maria's Rockies lost in the instructional league consolation championship game to the Red Sox, 9-5, on Saturday at Perry Park. The Rocks had trouble getting their offense started and fell short despite a late rally. Still, it was a real good season for the team, which won 6 of its last nine games after a tough start. It's fun to see the improvement of the kids, especially at the 7-8 year old level; the quality of ball improves so much as the season goes on.

We're done with baseball reporting for now - the kids aren't signed up for any fall sports but we'll be having basketball soon enough. We now return to regular programming.

Gray in black and white

My kids don't really like black and white movies unless they involve the Marx Brothers or Buster Keaton. Since I tend to be a devotee of older films, that can be a problem, especially since there are so many great movies to share with them that were filmed in black and white. I'm not sure if the problem is the lack of color, though. The larger problem might be the black and white movies that I prefer have so much gray in them.

I'm not talking about chroma. I'm talking about moral themes and how the world of adults are portrayed in some of the great movies of yesteryear. In the last two weeks, I've watched two films that are universally acknowledged as classics - Casablanca and The Third Man. These are films that have unmistakable moral messages. You likely know the stories - Rick (Humphery Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) may always have Paris, but give up a future together to help the noble but surprisingly plasterboard Victor Lazlo escape from the clutches of the Nazis. In The Third Man, Holly Martens (Joseph Cotten) learns a lot more than he probably wanted to know about his old college chum Harry Lime (Orson Welles), one of the more memorable villains in film history, as he locates and then chases Lime through the sewers of a bombed-out post-war Vienna.

Although the main themes are clear enough, the choices that the characters must make in these films involve a lot of complexity. In some respects both movies are about faith; Rick Blaine must rediscover the ideals he once held even as he confronts giving up potential happiness. Holly Martens thinks of himself as a worldly enough fellow, but what he learns in Vienna shatters not only his image of his friend, but also his assumptions about human nature. These are rich topics for a story and I'm not sure that such themes are part of the cinema these days. It's a lot easier to smash up cars than have a villain discuss the relative historical and cultural contributions of Italian principalities vs. the Swiss, as Harry Lime so memorably does. I suspect that modern audiences don't know who the Borgias are.

And that's the challenge; I worry that my kids may never learn such things unless I teach them. My son Ben loves history and he can relate details about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and both World Wars in amazing detail; he'd likely be a natural for that "Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader" show that's on television now. But he watched these movies with me and it was clear that while he understood the plot, he didn't understand how the characters made their choices and what the import of those choices were. Perhaps it's a bit much to ask for an 11-year old to understand these things, but I hope he will. It is my job to teach him and I intend to; in a world filled with Pokemon and Transformers and spectacle, redolent of nihilism, it's crucial.

Rockies keep rolling

Maria’s Rockies returned to action last night and recorded a thrilling 11-9 victory over the top-seeded Nationals at Lambert Park. Considering that the Nationals had beaten the Rockies 20-5 earlier in the season, the game provided an excellent gauge of the improvement of this team. The defense was solid all game long and there was enough timely hitting to bring home the victory. The win means that the Rockies went through their playoff pool with an undefeated 3-0 record. They will play their final game on Saturday at Perry Park; time and opponent are TBA.

Grab a seat

Or duck and cover:

• The Star Tribune is speculating that, based on the most recent census data, Minnesota might be in danger of losing a congressional seat in 2012. Population gains in the southern states mean that one of Minnesota’s seats may end up going to North Carolina or Georgia, to name just two possibilities. Given the current alignment of congresscritters representing and misrepresenting our state, it would be very interesting to see how it would play out. At this time the two main cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, both have essentially their own representatives. As it stands, these two representatives (Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison) are both shrill, emotional, moronic liberals. Needless to say, they represent their constituencies well, although as a sentient Ramsey County suburbanite I am deeply disenchanted with having McCollum representing me, since she acts in ways that are contrary to my interest on a daily basis. But would it be in the best interest of the state to morph their respective districts into one district? It might be. Anyone who has spent more than a weekend here knows well that Minneapolis and St. Paul are very different places, even though they both elect annoying leftist politicians. I’ve always lived on the St. Paul side of the river, although I’ve usually worked on the Minneapolis side. I don’t know if my neighborhood would be better served if it were part of, say, the 6th CD (now represented by Michele Bachmann); I do suspect my interests are more closely aligned with folks in places like Stillwater and Elk River than with the average IBEW steward in St. Paul or the vegan St. Joan of Arc parishioner in South Minneapolis with the PETA bumper sticker on her Prius. Something to watch; that’s for sure.
• The great Satchel Paige famously warned “Don’t look back; someone might be gaining on you.” In this case, that someone appears to be the Cubs. The Brewers have been struggling through another desultory road trip while the Cubs have been red-hot and have now pulled to within 4 ½ games as we approach the All-Star break. I still like the Brewers’ chances, especially since they have been pretty much lights out at home, but it appears there’s going to be a pennant race after all. I am hoping that Bill Hall gets well soon, though.
• Now that we are into July, we are less than a month away from football. Lots to think about there; some of the national preview magazines have my beloved Badgers ranked very high; I’ve seen as high as #3. Meanwhile, the Packers continue to float around under the radar. I don’t have a good feel for how this season is going to go at all; the NFL in particular looks pretty dodgy. But I would say this; if the Badgers dispatch their one legitimate non-conference opponent (Washington State) easily, look out.
  

A tough commute and some other stuff

I’ve really been trying to stay away from politics lately, especially given how unpleasant our current politics are. But things are happening right now and you have to keep your eye on things.

• The hot story from yesterday was President Bush commuting the sentence of Scooter Libby, the former White House aide who took the fall in the Valerie Plame kerfuffle. The outrage from the Perennially Indignant (thanks to P.J. O’Rourke for this useful term) has been loud and predictable, while the Republicans are trying to pretend that it doesn’t matter. I suspect this does matter, but not for the reasons either side is proffering. The larger problem is this: George W. Bush’s most notable failure has not been the War on Terror, including the theatre in Iraq – that steaming pile was in front of him from the beginning. The larger failure has been that George W. Bush has not been able to change the culture in Washington. It may have been an impossible task; there are so many bureaucratic infighters and low-blow artists in our nation’s capital that it might take some sort of political Orkin Man to clean things out. But he promised to try and it’s clear that this was a promise he had no intention of keeping. If he had been serious about reform, he would never have allowed Scooter Libby, a long-time Washington operative who had the charming Marc Rich as a law client, anywhere near his inner circle. But he did. You can’t change Washington if you have people like Scooter on your team. Still, I’m glad Scooter got his sentence commuted, since it does provide an excellent opportunity for schadenfreude at the expense of the Perennially Indignant.
• Apparently there was an attempted attack on the Glasgow airport – the eyewitnesses were awfully hard to understand, even though I’ve heard enough Mike Meyers routines to recognize a brogue when I hear one. The terrorists are testing Gordon Brown, the new British PM. I’m guessing he won’t fold, even though a lot of his supporters would like him to. President Hillary or President Obama can expect a similar test, too.
• Score one for free speech – the Supreme Court’s decision in the Wisconsin Right to Life case was a hammer-blow against the McCain-Feingold regime. I want as much free speech, especially political speech, as possible. I sincerely hope that the Supremes blow the rest of McCain-Feingold away soon.
  

The season ends for Ben

As expected, Ben’s Brewers lost their finale on Friday night to the Red Sox, 14-3, at a sun-drenched Southpoint Park. The Red Sox are the favorites to win the American League and the result was not surprising, especially after they jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first inning. It wasn’t all bad, though; three kids who have not had much of a chance to pitch were able to do so. One of these was Ben, who pitched the 4th inning and got out of it without giving up a run, throwing 13 pitches and giving up one hit and a walk. Ben does not exactly have a cannon for an arm, but his slow stuff worked well, causing the Red Sox hitters to beat the ball into the ground for three routine ground-outs. The Red Sox coach told Ben after the game how much he admired his performance, which was a classy gesture and really made Ben’s day.

All told, Ben’s Brewers won 3 games during the season and lost about 20, with one of the youngest teams in the league. That’s not a great record, but you will not find a better group of boys. I’m guessing he’ll remember this team more fondly than some of the other teams he’s played on. I know I will.

Friday tracers

Always a few things to make you go hmmm….

• Not sure what to make of the NBA draft, especially where my two favorite squads are concerned. The Bucks decided to go the international route and drafted Yi Jianlian, a tall, thin, talented fellow from China. The last time the Bucks drafted a fellow with a similar skill set, they immediately traded him for an ostensibly proven commodity. That trade turned out to be one of the stupidest moves in team history, as they sent Dirk Nowitzki away and received the long-forgotten “Tractor” Traylor in return. It appears they will keep Yi, whose representatives made it clear that Milwaukee was not exactly Yi’s preferred destination. Given that the Bucks already have Andrew Bogut and Charlie Villanueva as established “bigs,” I’m not sure what they’ll do with Yi. You could put him at small forward, giving the Bucks a 21-foot tall front line, but then what do you do with Michael Redd? I wonder if there’s more going on here than we know about, although sales of Bucks merchandise should explode in the Pacific Rim. As for the Woofies, they went all Gator on us, drafting Corey Brewer and Chris Richard, teammates on the two-time national championship team. Brewer has a chance to be a Scottie Pippen-type defender and should be able to score as he develops. He’ll be an improvement over Trenton Hassell and I assume that Hassell will be sent away soon. As for Richard, he has a similar game to that of Craig Smith, only not as polished, so I guess I’m not sure what benefit he brings to the team. Still, you have to like Brewer. The big question remains, what happens to KG? That’s still not addressed.
• Ben’s Brewers saw their playoff hopes come to an end last night with a 9-3 loss to the Rockies (not Maria’s squad) at Wilson Park. The game fit the season-long pattern; the opponent streaks out to an early lead and then coasts to victory. Ben was 0-2 with a walk and was thrown out at home attempting to score on a wild pitch; he did play well defensively. They have one more game tonight, against the league-leading Red Sox, at 6:30 at the evil Southpoint Park in North Oaks. The good news is that Ben should get a chance to pitch tonight – as always, stay tuned to this feature for all your Little League highlights. Meanwhile, Maria’s season will continue on Monday, July 9 with a game against an unknown opponent at Lambert Park in Mounds View. Our tour of the northern suburbs continues.
• I’m not lining up to get an iPhone yet; I may be the only adult male in North America who still does not own a cell phone and I think my first purchase of one should be one of those brick-sized jobs with the four foot antenna. The iPhone does look like a pretty cool piece of technology, but Apple may have screwed the pooch by aligning this debut with AT&T/Cingular, renowned and reviled for wretched cell phone service. I probably will need a cell phone by the end of the year, but I’m holding out for as long as I can. My opinion of cell phones generally is not good, especially since they are the cause of more rude behavior than just about anything that’s ever been invented. After all, what’s more pleasant than sitting in a public library when someone’s cell phone goes off with a Two Live Crew ringtone at 75dB? And who doesn’t love having a personal, face-to-face conversation that is interrupted for a cell-phone call? It’s like watching an old Bob Newhart routine, except not nearly as funny. I know this is very well-plowed ground, but I’m pleased that I’m not part of this. Yet.
  

Happiness is a Warm – Yes it is – Gun

Especially one that sends the bullets firing:

• The immigration bill died in the Senate today and it appears likely that we won’t see any more efforts to revive it for the rest of this Congress. While I continue to believe that we need to figure out a way to help move the 12 million or so illegals who are already here out of the shadows, to use a popular cliché, in the end it was awfully difficult to make the argument that such a plan wasn’t a de facto amnesty for people who had broken the law. What happens next is largely up to W – my hope is that he’ll see the defeat of this bill as an opportunity to rebuild credibility on his right flank by doing the things they’ve asked – completing the border fence that’s already authorized and doing a better job of supporting the agents who have the thankless task of enforcing our southern border. If that were done, my guess is that there would be more support for doing some of the other things, too. The more likely scenario will be that talk radio will get demonized and there will be more calls for muzzling Rush, Sean, Laura, Hugh et al. via the Orwellian “Fairness Doctrine.” I know I’m in the minority of conservatives on this issue – I wanted a bill. But this bill was doomed for a long time and it’s hard to be too angry about its demise.
• Haven’t updated the baseball for the kids in a few days; it’s been a mixed bag. Both teams are in the playoffs now and Maria’s Rockies have been on fire. They clobbered the Cubs 19-5 on Monday then followed that up with a victory (score not known) over the White Sox on Tuesday. Maria had hits in both games, driving in an RBI against the Cubs and scoring on Tuesday. She has improved tremendously as the season goes on – she has about 7 or 8 hits this season, in a league where there are kids who strike out every time they bat, so she has a lot of reason to be proud. Ben’s Brewers are also now in the playoff pool, having lost to the Athletics 13-4 on Tuesday night. His squad will face the American League Rockies tonight at Wilson Park and will play the Red Sox on Friday at Sitzer. If the Brewers lose those games – unfortunately, a distinct possibility – his season will be over. Maria’s season continues with another playoff game on Monday, July 9 against an unknown opponent. That game will be at Lambert Park.
• The NBA draft is tonight and, as of this writing, Kevin Garnett is still a Wolf. I blogged about this topics ad nauseum last week. Suffice it to say that Garnett will be leaving eventually. The question is whether the Wolves are compensated or not for his departure.
  

Budum, Scourge and the Ambivalent Hipster

There they were, arrayed around the table at the Edina Fuddruckers - fond friends and co-workers from a life that has been gone for a while now. Back from the wilds of Portland were Budum the Harvest Sprite and my former protege, the Ambivalent Hipster. Also joining us was the Scourge, mellowed just a bit but still possessing a tongue like a lash.

We all worked at Bank of America, which is known for many things, but fun is not one of them. Still, here were some of the most fun people I've ever known. Budum the Harvest Sprite is the nom de guerre of my friend Paul, one of the nicest, most decent human beings I've ever known. Because he is so indefatigably happy-go-lucky, he tends to attract more good natured ribbing than any person might reasonably expect, but because he rarely takes offense, he generates more good will than just about anyone I know. He also married exceptionally well - his wife is a bright, sensible woman of great talent and compassion. A lot like my wife, then. Paul has managed to take his wonderful nature and his native intelligence and has built a fine career at B of A.

The Ambivalent Hipster is Aaron, a bright, inquisitive fellow who worked with me and for me at B of A before moving west with the bank. He ended up replacing me at the Bank and has done well. Aaron is still well short of 30 and has had to do a lot of growing up in the past few years. Like Budum and Mr. D, he is also a liberal arts type (Aaron is a St. Olaf man, while Paul's alma mater is Gustavus) and although he is significantly younger than me, we always got on well because we share a similar worldview and background. Because he is younger, he's still enamored of some things that he'll likely reject as he gets older (mopey hipster bands, leftism, affinity for the French) but he's the kind of guy who gives you hope for the future.

Then there's the Scourge - my friend Julie, who has as much native intelligence as anyone I've ever known. Julie doesn't have the high-priced university background, but she reads people and situations better than people with years of training and experience. Because she's so smart and has such a fine sense of humor and irony, she does not suffer fools gladly. Because she is still young, she will sometimes let fly with comments that she might regret later. But because she is so spot-on about things, she has less to regret than she might think.

We talked for a long time yesterday; reminiscing, talking about what we're doing. I explained at some length about my recent health travails. We worried together about another B of A friend, who has recently suffered tough times and is now seemingly hiding from the world. Eventually I had to leave, even though I didn't want to. There is great comfort spending time with good friends, especially those from a former life. I continue to value each of these friendships in ways that are difficult for me to articulate. But as the restaurant faded in my rear view mirror, I had to look ahead. Every damned day, that's the challenge.

The Joys of Homeownership

There was a famous character in the old Li'l Abner comic strip named Joe Bftsplk. Old Joe never had any luck and was generally portrayed as a fellow with his own personal rain cloud over his head. Lately I've been feeling a bit Bftsplk-esque, especially concerning the ol' manse. In the past two weeks we've had the air conditioning go out, a leaky toilet and now an electrical problem. We're living without the AC for now, but we had to write a big check for the toilet and now we're looking at an electical cost to be determined. As you might imagine, it's not an easy thing to deal with, given our current financial situation.

I'm trying to keep smiling, especially since I do have a few interviews in the next week and I have a good feeling about one of these opportunities, but it's getting tough and we are really tired of this. My health continues to improve, but the tests continue.

Clap for the Wolfman, then send him on his way

So yesterday I was discussing Wolfman Jack and Keats’ poem “Ozymandias.” One of the fun parts of blogging is that you can be as personal, and as incoherent, as you want to be. It’s a good thing too because all that nonsense was a warmup to today’s topic; what to do with Kevin Garnett.

KG is the modern Wolfman; he has been a loyal soldier and the dominant public figure for the Timberwolves since 1995. He has been willing, like the Wolfman, to do whatever is asked of him. He has also been compensated handsomely for his many labors. In his 11-year career he has essentially been the Ozymandias of the organization, the king of kings. But for all his labors, as fans we look upon his works and despair, because he has never been able to take his team to a championship. He is now 31 years old and while still a fine player, it is clear that he needs to go elsewhere if he wants to escape the fate of Reggie Miller and Karl Malone. And since he can leave on his own after next season, the time is now to move him, before the Wolves lose him and gain nothing in return.

But what do you do? The Celtics have called and Garnett has rejected the offer. Word is that he would prefer to go to Phoenix or maybe Los Angeles, but neither team would be willing to offer sufficient value in return. Even a straight KG for Kobe switch would be a bad move, since you’d be receiving a supremely talented but selfish head case in return for a extremely talented good soldier. The Suns will not give up Amare Stoudamire, so you wonder what will happen.

Something is going to happen, because it has to. But like Burton Cummings, I am clapping for the Wolfman. And despite the glittering wreckage of the past 11 years, like most basketball fans I’m going to “dig him ‘til the day you die.” Thanks, KG – good luck.

Clap for the Wolfman

If you are of a certain age you’ll remember that title, which is affixed to one of the most egregious suck-ups in the history of rock and roll. The Guess Who, a Canadian singles band that had a number of hits in the late 60s and early 70s and is best remembered today for their semi-rocking but ham-handed anti-war number “American Woman,” was pretty much circling the bowl by the mid 70s. Randy Bachmann left the band and formed another 70s singles band, Bachmann-Turner Overdrive, leaving former colleague Burton Cummings without much of anything, especially direction. He’d come “undun,” to quote yet another Guess Who song, when he decided to write a paean to a gravel-voiced disc jockey named Wolfman Jack. The Wolfman was a fixture on the radio in Los Angeles and had managed to parlay his shtick into a sizable role in the fine 1973 film “American Graffiti,” which helped launch the careers of Ron Howard, Harrison Ford and Suzanne Somers, among others. The Wolfman was pretty much an omnipresent feature of 1970s popular culture, between his nationally syndicated radio show and his role as host of NBC’s rock music show “The Midnight Special,” which was compelling enough (“Cool! Black Oak Arkansas is on tonight!”) to get me to switch away from “All-Star Wrestling” for my late night 70s weekend viewing. Besides all that, you had a hard time getting away from the Wolfman, because he would do voice work for just about anyone who ponied up the cash; the Wolfman regularly extolled the virtues of Fox Valley businesses and probably did the same for the good people of Scranton or Corpus Christi or Spokane. The Wolfman had a nice run but died of a heart attack in 1995 and I’d guess that most people under the age of 30 have no idea who he is.

Anyway, “Clap for the Wolfman” proved to be the last hit for the Guess Who, who have survived their late 70s oblivion quite nicely because of the prevalence of Classic Hits Radio formats; indeed, several of their songs can be heard regularly on KQRS and similarly themed stations. Meanwhile, the Wolfman is the radio equivalent of Ozymandias. Take it away, Mr. Keats:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Okay, so what the heck is all this about, anyway? You’ll find out soon enough. Tune in tomorrow; same bat time, same bat channel.

Midweek Musings

I’m always trying to keep up with the events – sometimes the only way to keep up is to start firing:

• Got a note from my brother today that one of my high school classmates, Bridget Wessing, passed away on Monday. Bridget was a good soul who certainly had her struggles in life. She managed to graduate from XHS but she never really made it much further than that. I was never clear what the issue was with her, although I suspect she suffered from some mild mental illness. She became an acquaintance and sometimes a friend of Mom, whose struggles in this arena have been well-discussed in this space. Bridget could be a bit of a pest and she had a propensity to do a few odd things; according to the obituary in the Appleton Post-Crescent, she was a devotee of church picnics, while my brother added that she also was a funeral groupie and that she had become a bit of a town character. Still, there was never any doubt that her heart was in the right place and I don’t doubt that when she met her Maker, her Maker was pleased to welcome her. RIP.
• One of the more interesting revelations that has come from the financial disclosure statements that the presidential hopefuls have been providing is this: apparently former president Bill Clinton gave a speech to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Los Angeles and received $150,000. I’m not sure what’s worse about this: that this much-beloved scoundrel is such a grifter that he would actually charge a charity six figures to give a speech; or that a charity would give the money to him for something so transitory. This is just another reason why his pieties are so grating. If trade associations and other groups are willing to pony up that kind of money to see the guy, that’s fine. But you would think that he’d speak to a charity for free.
• After a two-day respite, the kids are back to baseball. Ben’s Brewers have their rematch tonight against the Mariners; game time is 6:30 p.m. at Sitzer Park in Shoreview. Meanwhile, Maria’s Rockies will take on the Dodgers at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Veteran’s Park in New Brighton. Be there – aloha!
  

Reason to believe

It's been a pretty tough month in some respects around here. My interminable job search continues and remains a source of deep frustration. We've had a few other issues to deal with that have been pretty frustrating; the air conditioning went out last week and we continue to have a few other "deferred maintenance" things that cause us inconveniences, but right now the money's pretty tight and we're just trying to limp along. We continue to be incredibly busy, running to baseball games every ten minutes it seems. We're deep into what Freud termed "Civilization and its Discontents."

But like the old song says - still, I look to find a reason to believe. And I have a lot of them.

I see my children at play and learning more every day. They keep smiling and coming up with great ideas. Ben is starting to get more interested in writing - he's been posting on his blog again recently (www.bens-sportsblog.blogspot.com) and he's starting a little side project that keeps him tapping away on the home computer. Meanwhile, Maria continues to be the most prolific artist since Andy Warhol, except without the arch cynicism, the bad haircut and any Edie Sedgwick sightings. Most seven-year-olds don't have an entourage, thankfully. And she records her thoughts on her blog, too (www.aboutmaria.blogspot.com).

I see my wife, who does so many things to keep us healthy and happy and sane. She has evolved as we've lived our lives together and has become a formidable person with a great heart and a world-class mind. I am deeply fortunate that she has chosen to share her life with me.

I see a lot of good things happening in the world, despite the constant chatter of death and hatred that flows through my radio and television and computer screen. I see the hand of God everywhere, every day. And I know that no matter how frustrating life can be, I have a purpose and a role to play in this world.

Rat-a-tat

Whizzing by again....

• Ben's Brewers lost on Sunday to the Mariners, 15-8. Typical game with a typical result; our kids were game but the other team simply had more talent and was able to make more plays as a result. Ben was 1-3 and chipped in with an outfield assist, throwing out a Mariner runner who was trying to stretch a single into a double. Ben almost gunned down another runner at 3rd base later on, but the slide dislodged the ball from the 3rd baseman. Ben and his crew get a rematch against the Mariners on Wednesday at 6:30 at Sitzer Park; following that it will be playoff time.
• Maria was in the hospital today for a minor revision on previous surgeries for her cleft lip and palate. This one was designed to fix the air ports on her pharengyal flap. We had thought she might need to stay overnight for observation, but she came through it so fast and so well that Mrs. D will be bringing her home from Gillette Children's later today. We continue to be amazed at the facility of the medical organizations and the great skill of the health care industry here in the Twin Cities. If you need medical attention, it's great to be alive in 2007.
• Was that a cattle stampede, or was that Prince Fielder? If you didn't see the spectacle of Prince Fielder romping through the Metrodome with an inside-the-park home run yesterday on Sports Center, and I'm not sure how you missed it because they pretty much had it running on a continuous loop, it was something to see. You don't usually see anyone that large moving that fast. The Twins ended up winning the game on a walk-off homer by Justin Morneau, but the sight of Our Prince rumbling across the turf was one of the most amusing things I've seen this season.
• Budum the Harvest Sprite is apparently returning to Minnesota for a visit this week. Sorry to all those who don't catch this reference, but it's good news for all of us who miss his good nature and his uncanny resemblance to a lawn gnome.
• Time for a periodic Mr. D contest: name your favorite obscure former Brewers and/or Twins players. The floor is open for nominations!

Dome Runs

Maria is with me this afternoon and she's going to help me write this one. First, a little news. Ben and I went to see the Brewers and the Twins at the Dome last night with my brother Mike. It was a fine game if you are a Brewers fan, as the True Blue Brew Crew dominated Scott Baker and the Twins 11-3. Geoff Jenkins and Prince Fielder both hit majestic home runs and Claudio Vargas pitched well enough to win. It's pretty clear that Scott Baker is not, at least at the moment, a major league pitcher. He was terrible and the Brewers made him pay for every mistake. Ben didn't like it one bit....

Now, let's turn it over to Maria, my guest blogger.

Rockies Rockies Rockies! And Brewers Brewers Brewers! So much baseball this year. If you were me, Ben, Dad or Mom, you might be extremely extremely tired of baseball baseball baseball. P.S., sorry I keep writing the same words words words in a row row row. -- Maria

Okay, back to reporting, but thanks, Maria! She's right, by the way - there's been a ton of baseball. In fact, Ben just completed another game, losing to the White Sox 14-5 this afternoon at Wilson Park in Shoreview. Our team competed well, but as has been the case most of this season, the other team was simply better. Ben went 0-2 against some of the better pitching we've seen this season, but his teammates did do some good things. They will play again tomorrow at 6 p.m. against the Mariners, this time at Sitzer, I think. The schedule keeps changing and sometimes we end up wandering from park to park, it seems. In any event, this should be interesting, as the expected high temperature for tomorrow is supposed to be something like 475 degrees Fahrenheit; perhaps we are actually roasting a duck instead of playing ball; we'll see.

Friday's Grapeshot

More dispatches from Paradise (with air quality warnings):

• Ben’s Brewers lost to the league-leading Red Sox by a final score of 19-11 last night at Wilson Park. Again, it was clear which team was superior, but the Red Sox were also superior sportsmen. After building a large lead on the Brewers’ depleted pitching staff, the Sox did something I haven’t seen before this year; they actually called off the dogs. They gave two of their younger, more inexperienced players a chance to pitch. Not surprisingly, our Brewers actually were able to mount a modest rally against these youngsters, including a rocket that Ben hit to the outfield; only a fine play by their center fielder kept it from being Ben’s first extra-base hit of the year, but Ben greatly enjoyed his powerful single and a 1-2 night overall. This is how the game should be played; the Sox coaches were more interested in having their kids learn new skills (and, by extension, giving our kids a chance to taste some success) than demonstrating their superiority and running up the score. A much better result all the way around and an example that other coaches in the league might consider; it’s still difficult to see what the point was when the Nats pounded our squad 41-4 earlier this week. Ben and company will take the field again twice over the weekend, first against the White Sox on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Wilson; then a Father’s Day tilt against the Mariners, at 3 p.m. and also at Wilson.
• Mr. Dilettante’s health continues to improve, although I continue to be impatient about it. I’m able to do many of the things I want to do these days, but I still find that I get tired easily and that my internal clock is pretty weird these days. I find myself waking up at 5 a.m. some mornings and then struggling like heck to answer the alarm (set for 6:30) other days. Two and one-half months on, I still don’t quite know for sure what the new normal is. But I do appreciate that my headaches are still pretty much under control; that’s a huge thing.
• My brother has invited me to the Dome tonight to see the Brewers and the Twins. After the hot start the big-league Brewers had, things have cooled off considerably. Meanwhile, the Twins are coming off a pretty impressive sweep of the Atlanta Braves, who still don’t seem to have mastered winning in Minnesota. This is the time last year when the two teams really started going in opposite directions; the Twins got red-hot and stayed red-hot all season long, while the Brewers faded out of contention with almost shocking speed. I don’t think 2007 is the same as 2006; my sense is that the Brewers are a better team this year and that the Twins will ultimately be short a few players this time around. But this has become a better rivalry now that it is inter-league. And I’m looking forward to seeing the game.
• You didn’t see a lot about it in the news this morning, but the Supreme Court made an interesting decision in a case involving public employee unions. The Court ruled 9-0 that the state of Washington can require unions to ensure that they receive prior consent from union members before they can spend union dues on political matters. The case applied to public sector unions, which have a propensity to use a lot of their resources for politicking. On a personal level, it’s potentially good news for Mrs. Dilettante, who was essentially compelled to join AFSCME when she took her job with Hennepin County (even if she didn’t join, she’d have been forced to pay dues) and who is routinely annoyed when she receives a steady stream of left-wing political stuff via the mail, e-mail, phone, etc., all the while she watches the intrepid local negotiate wage increases that have not covered inflation in recent years. Mrs. D tends to keep her politics to herself, but she’s certainly not a supporter of all the worthies that her union supports. It will be interesting to see what happens, but this ruling could have a huge impact on the political power of unions going forward, especially in the public sector.
• For those of you keeping score, this represents the 400th post on Mr. Dilettante since I began this little adventure in late 2005. If you’ve read them all, thank you. If you haven’t, chances are pretty good that you have a life and should be thankful about that, too!
  

Baseball update

More baseball, same sort of results. Ben's Brewers team lost their game to the Athletics on Tuesday by a score of 13-8. Ben was 1-2 and made a fine play at 3rd base, knocking down a one-hop smash with a diving stop that saved a run. The parents were calling him Brooks Robinson afterward. Meanwhile, Maria's squad lost 15-8 to the hard-hitting Diamondbacks last night. Maria continues to improve her hitting as well, getting another single in the game. Maria now has her first hitting streak of the season. The kids played well but the other team was just too strong.

Lots more baseball, as usual - Ben's Brewers take on the league-leading Red Sox tonight at Wilson Park in Shoreview at 6:30 p.m. Watch this space for comprehensive Little League coverage!

The Walrus was Paul

One way people demonstrate they don’t really care that much about you, or what you’re trying to tell them, is if they get your name wrong.

Readers of this feature likely know that I have a brother named Paul. Paul is a fine fellow and some of his exploits have been chronicled in this space. Paul has a nice job and a nice home in Appleton, Wisconsin. Paul married exceptionally well (a family trait, I might add) and he and his wife Heidi have three fine young children. Paul is an ancillary footsoldier in the Bill Gates army; his company provides corporate training on Microsoft applications to companies needing such expertise. Paul is an excellent teacher, a fine communicator and all in all a pretty good guy. Everyone who knows Paul thinks pretty highly of him. If they don’t, they are clearly mistaken. I would conclude this paragraph of fulsome praise by saying that I admire my brother greatly, especially now that the statute of limitations has long run on some of his more youthful indiscretions.

I am not Paul. But you would have a hard time convincing some people I’ve dealt with in recent weeks. On three separate occasions someone I’m in communication with has addressed me as Paul. I’m not sure if somehow I give off some essence of Paulness, whatever that might be, but the frequency of it makes me wonder. I’ve also been called Mike more than a few times; as it happens I also have a brother named Mike, who is a fine fellow in his own right. This is understandable, as Mark and Mike are fairly similar names and the woods are full of 40ish dudes named Mike (and Mark for that matter). But there aren’t that many Pauls.

The one person who always seemed to get names mixed up was my dad. But his tendency was to call out everyone’s name until he got to the kid whose attention he wanted. Sometimes he really wanted the dog, but the roll call would go out anyway – “MarkPatPaulCarolMargaretMichael… no, Peaches, I want you, dawg!” Since I’m the oldest, at least my name always got mentioned; that’s something, I suppose.

I’m not sure what it all means – it may not mean anything. But it’s not exactly an ego boost to have someone address you by your brother’s name. At least no one is calling me Peaches. Not yet, anyway.

Odds and sods

Uh-oh, here come those bullets again:

• After a nice start to the month, the kids' baseball teams have come back to earth with a thud. Maria's Rockies played hard but lost a 21-10 decision to a hard-hitting Mets team at a sun-baked Pike Lake. Maria had her best game yet, getting two hits and scoring her first run of the season, while also having her first chance to play catcher. She has wanted to do that for a long time; too bad her first chance came on a day when it was about 89 degrees and humid. She will take the field again on Wednesday against the mysterious Padres; game time will be 6:30 at Floral Park in Arden Hills. As for Ben's Brewers, the word on the street is that they took a horrific thrashing from the Nationals, losing something like 41-4, or maybe 45-4, at the evil Southpoint Park in North Oaks. I don't know the score for sure because I didn't see the thrashing; since Maria's head coach was traveling on business, I had to step in and coach Maria's team last night. Ben's league does not have a mercy rule and it's pretty clear that the Nats showed no mercy. After a while, you would think the other team would call off the dogs, but it didn't happen. The weird thing is, the Brewers beat the Nats during the mid-season tournament. Go figure. Ben and his pals will try again tonight, this time against the Athletics, at Wilson Park in Shoreview. Game time is 6:30.
• I've been trying to put a longer piece together on the immigration issue, but I'm finding it difficult to express my views properly. There is so much mendacity afoot on all sides of this issue that it's tempting to simply walk away from it all. We need to figure out how to solve this problem, but I don't sense there's much good will left. I do plan to revisit the issue, but I'm going to let it percolate for a while.
• Meanwhile, I read that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's job approval rating is something like 19%. Looks like the word is getting out about the D's, doncha think? I also hear that Chuck Hagel, the self-righteous Robert Mitchum look-alike who masquerades as a Republican senator, now has a credible challenger in next year's Republican primary in Nebraska. It would not break my heart to see Hagel go down, that's for sure.
• Both the pro baseball teams that garner allegiance in this outpost are really scuffling right now. The Twins had a dismal weekend against the lowly Washington Nationals, dropping games to the immortal Jason Simontacchi and Lavale Speigner, both washouts from the Twins farm system. I do sense that the Nats may have a potential solution for the Twins' woes at DH, however; they may want to take a flyer on Dmitri Young, the hulking switch-hitter who doesn't really have a position with the Nats but who sports a .350 batting average and demonstrated power. The Nats like reject Twins pitchers; maybe they'd take Scott Baker or something for him. Young would fit quite nicely in the six hole for the TC Men. As for the Milwaukee Brewers, they seem lost right now. Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy continue to have remarkable seasons, but the clutch hits are not happening and the pitching has been pretty spotty. I don't think a visit to Detroit is the cure, but we'll see what happens. Thankfully the rest of the NL Central is even more wretched than the Brew Crew has been lately.

Playing the dozens on Oakcrest Drive

Had a correspondence with Mr. Miller last week and he reminded me of one of the many strange rituals of our childhood; back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, while we attended lovely Xavier High School, we would generally walk home together along with another friend, the lovely and talented fellow known to one and all as Goose. We would walk together down Oakcrest Drive, a pleasant residential street in our neighborhood, and we would spend the entire time ripping each other with less-than-loving cheap shots. Our banter generally didn't rise to the level of brilliance; no one would confuse it with dialogue from a Judd Apatow movie. It often went something like this:

Mr. D: "So Goose, did you manage to go a whole day without drooling on yourself?"
Goose: "Shut up, you buck-toothed varmint!"
Mr. M: "C'mon Goose, he's got braces now. He's not so buck-toothed, but he's still pretty ugly."
Mr. D and Goose (in unison): "Who asked you, Snoot?"

If there was snow on the ground, and there often was, a common tactic would be take a hunk of snow and throw at someone's feet and shout "Dance!" Occasionally tempers might flare and a half-hearted punch might be thrown, but generally it was pretty tame. It was a version of what used to be called "the dozens," an inner-city, generally African-American tradition of ritualized cheap shots that lives on in such forms as "your Mama's so fat" jokes and this classic couplet from War's 1975 classic "Why Can't We Be Friends"

I hear you're working for the CIA
They would not have you in the Maf-I-Ay

Adolescent boys like insults, for whatever reason. My son Ben continues to flash a sharper wit as he gets older, although he's still at the age where he often blows the punchline because he starts laughing at his own joke before he gets it told (a tendency that did not derail the career of Johnny Carson, so he has hope). I always try to keep my perspective on this sort of thing, even when Ben is attempting to zing his sister, who at the age of 7 already has a tongue like a lash. As a parent, there are a lot of things you are officially supposed to disapprove of, but it's hard not to remember playing the dozens on Oakcrest Drive and simultaneously maintain a stern visage when your kids are playing their own game 30 years later.

Giving Justice the Heffelfinger

Like a bad Mexican dinner, the U.S. attorney kerfuffle continues to come back up again and again. For reasons that baffle those of us who don’t suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome, various Lefties continue to hammer on the case of Thomas Heffelfinger, the former U.S. Attorney from Minneapolis, who doesn’t happen to be one of the 8 US-A’s that was fired. Because someone, somewhere put his name on a list of potential fire-ees, various people have decided to use him as a human brickbat with which to beat the administration.

This is about the silliest thing I’ve seen. Heffelfinger resigned his position nearly a year before AG Alberto Gonzales moved to fire some of his US-A’s. Trying to conflate the issues is like blaming Daunte Culpepper for the bad quarterbacking the Vikings had in the 2006 season. But logic has never been a Leftie strong suit, of course.

There are plenty of things to beat up the Bushies about – the conduct of the war, the way they refuse to defend themselves against the scurrilities of the Lefties, their occasionally pie-eyed assumptions about human nature. But this is just silly.

Updates from the diamond

We are in a stretch with a lot of baseball. All told, our kids will participate in 10 games over a six day period. Good thing we like baseball at our house….

Maria’s Rockies are suddenly on a tear. After winning their first game on Friday, the Rock Stars have won twice more, again defeating the Cubs 13-8 on Monday night at Sunnyside and then outlasting the Cardinals 5-3 on Tuesday at Bel Air. The kids have really been playing very well and they are now consistently making fine plays in the field. On a personal note, Maria got her first hit on Monday, beating out a grounder to the pitcher. She was delighted and so is this correspondent.

Continuing what has been a relentless stretch of action, the Rockies take the field again tonight, this time against the Reds. Game time is 6:30 p.m. at Sunnyside School in New Brighton.

As for Ben’s Brewers, they had a rematch against the Dodgers last night and lost 19-8. The Dodgers are a very good hitting team; their best hitter hit a long home run, the first over-the-fence job we’ve seen all year. I was not at the game but my trusted correspondent (a/k/a/ Mrs. Dilettante) tells me that the Brew Crew rallied late and made it a little more interesting. Ben singled in the game as well. The Brewers get another shot against the Dodgers on Thursday at 6:30 at Sitzer Park. The Brewers will have their better pitchers going in this game, so we’ll see if they can make some progress.

Off the schneid

As readers of this feature know, my kids love to play baseball, but that hasn’t always meant success on the field. After Ben’s Brewers suffered a 14-5 loss to the league-leading Nationals on Thursday, the kids’ respective teams were a combined 0-14. Now it’s June and apparently things have changed. And how.

First, Maria’s Rockies got off the schneid, defeating the Cubs 6-3 on Friday night under a light mist at Lambert Park in Mounds View. The Cubs had previously mopped the floor with our Rockies in the season opener, something like 12-0, so the progress our charges have made are nothing short of phenomenal. Maria made a nice play at 3rd base and hit a few loud foul balls, which represents personal progress, while some of her teammates made some really nice plays, especially for a bunch of 7 year olds. Maria’s squad has a marathon of baseball ahead this week, with games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at various ballparks in the north metro.

Then we have the Brewers. It was AL Classic weekend, the annual mid-season tournament in which all 12 squads play in a double-elimination format that means the kids can play up to four games in one day, assuming they keep winning. Since Ben’s team was winless entering the tournament, I assumed I would be home early in the afternoon and would spend the rest of the day mowing the lawn. Nope. Something changed on Saturday and our winless lads suddenly became world-beaters. The first game started out in typical fashion, with the Brew Crew losing a tough game to the Mariners, 4-2, at Wilson Park in Shoreview. Our pitching held up well but the kids were not able to eke out enough runs. That sent the kids into the losers’ bracket. We packed up the car and went over to Sitzer Park, where we faced the Nationals, who had somehow managed to get beaten earlier. With the recent loss to the Nats fresh in their minds, the kids jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and then held on to win their first game of the season, 4-2. The win knocked the Nats out of the tournament, much to their shock. That meant another game quickly thereafter, again at Sitzer, against the Rangers, the team that we’d lost a heartbreaker to earlier in the season. The pitching again was superb and the suddenly red-hot Brew Crew won again, this time 2-1.

The lawn was now going to wait. Amazingly, our kids would play their fourth game of the day, this time against the Athletics, one of the better teams on the eastern side of the league. Our kids, suddenly filled with success, immediately jumped out to a 7-3 lead after one inning. Then the rain came; lots and lots of rain, with a spectacular lightning show and even a few blasts of the weather siren. The game was suspended until the next day and we sought shelter from the storm.

Sunday arrived, cloudy and drizzly, but it usually takes a lot more than drizzle to stop Little League baseball in my area, so we returned to Sitzer Park at 10:30 a.m. The kids continued to play well, eventually defeating the Athletics 9-6. Ben managed to steal home in the final inning, which proved to be a key insurance run. This was the first time he had ever stolen home and he did it with a dramatic slide that got his foot on the plate just a moment before the catcher could apply the tag.

Next were the Dodgers. It may have been only 1 p.m. in the Central time zone, but it was midnight for our lads, as the Dodgers overpowered our game but tired kids, 9-3. We had used up all of our regular pitchers on Saturday and because Little League sensibly enforces a mandatory pitch count, we had to use a kid with limited experience and we got a not-too-surprising result. But by winning 3 games in the tournament, the kids finished in 4th place, which meant they all earned trophies. You will rarely see a prouder group of boys than these blue-clad Brewers.

When I was a kid, I was pretty lucky –every baseball team I played with was successful. Three times I played on teams that won championships. I didn’t have a lot to do with their success, but I always played with talented teammates. So far, Ben and Maria haven’t had that experience. The cliché is that the game is the most important thing, and that winning and losing shouldn’t matter that much, but every kid I’ve ever known strongly prefers winning, even the kids in Maria’s age group. You can see a lot of ugliness in youth sports, especially from parents and coaches who value winning too much and cut ethical corners to achieve success. Both Ben and Maria’s coaches refuse to do that and I admire both of them for their stance. Still, you like to see the kids learn how to compete successfully. You cannot avoid competition in this world. And this weekend, both kids tasted success. My suspicion is they’ll like it.

Cheap labor and cheap emotions - part one

My own experience as a cheap laborer, which I discussed in Wednesday’s post, is a good starting point for talking about the increasingly nasty immigration debate. As an admitted troglodyte, I do listen to a number of the AM radio shouters when I’m tooling around town during the day, and it’s been amazing to hear some of the things that are being said. The opposition to this bill is sincere, heartfelt and passionate. What you don’t get are any workable alternatives.

My own view on immigration is that immigrants are on balance a positive for this country. It’s become a cliché to point out that we are a nation of immigrants, but it is true. My ancestors came to the United States for a better life. Almost certainly yours did too. Not surprisingly people are still coming for the same reason. Additionally, since immigrants don’t take this better life for granted, they often are willing to work harder and better than native-born U.S. citizens. People don’t like to hear that or say it publicly, but it’s true.

This leads to one of the biggest arguments you’ll get on this issue; the notion put forth by immigration proponents that illegals tend to do work that Americans won’t do. This notion is hotly disputed but there’s not a lot of evidence to indicate the contrary. It often happens that the jobs are not necessarily convenient for unemployed or underemployed American citizens; if you are unemployed and live in Minneapolis, an available job at the turkey plant in Willmar is a tough commute. But it’s a lot tougher commute to Willmar from Jalisco, Mexico, or Chichicastenango, Guatemala, yet the workers who show up in Willmar tend to be from such places, rather than from Minneapolis. Perhaps that has meaning, perhaps it doesn’t, but you can certainly draw your own conclusions.

The problem remains – what do you do with all the people who are already here? You simply can’t deport 12 million people without causing tremendous problems, and not just on the border. In places like Willmar and Worthington, the immigrants are a key part of the local economy and have already transformed the communities in question. Growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin, the influx of Hmong refugees in the 1970s changed Appleton fundamentally as well. I’m not qualified to say if Appleton is a better place now than it was before 1975, but it is a different place and there have been a lot of benefits. I also know Appleton was a far different place before my ancestors arrived in the 1850s. And I also know that there were a lot people in the 1850s who were arguing against immigration in similar terms and with similar emotions to what you hear now. Some of them even formed their own political party, which has come down through history to be known as the “Know-Nothings.” Again, you can draw your own conclusions.

Here’s my other conclusion – we don’t have an immigration problem; we have an assimilation problem. More on that anon.